Port Blair (officially renamed Sri Vijaya Puram in 2024) is the capital and largest urban centre of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory of India located in the Bay of Bengal. Situated on the eastern coast of South Andaman Island, the city serves as the administrative, commercial, and transport hub for the archipelago and is the principal entry point for visitors to the islands.
| Type | Capital city, Union Territory |
|---|---|
| Union Territory | Andaman and Nicobar Islands |
| District | South Andaman |
| Region | South Andaman Island, Bay of Bengal |
| Renamed | Sri Vijaya Puram (2024) |
| Named after | Lieutenant Archibald Blair, Royal Navy |
| Civic body | Port Blair Municipal Council |
| Airport | Veer Savarkar International Airport (IXZ) |
| Major port | Sri Vijaya Puram (Haddo) Port |
| Languages | Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, English |
Port Blair lies on the south-eastern coast of South Andaman Island, roughly equidistant from Kolkata and Chennai on the Indian mainland and closer to the coasts of Myanmar and the northern tip of Sumatra. The city is built around a natural harbour and is characterised by undulating terrain, mangrove fringes, and tropical evergreen forest in the surrounding islands. The climate is tropical, with high humidity year-round and rainfall delivered by both the south-west and north-east monsoons.
The harbour was surveyed in 1789 by Lieutenant Archibald Blair of the Bombay Marine, after whom the settlement was later named. An initial British attempt to establish a penal settlement was abandoned in 1796 due to disease and high mortality among the colonists.
Following the Revolt of 1857, the British East India Company re-established a penal colony at Port Blair in 1858 under the supervision of Dr. James Pattison Walker, transporting convicts and political prisoners from the mainland. The settlement became notorious as Kala Pani. Construction of the Cellular Jail, designed for solitary confinement, began in 1896 and was completed in 1906. Indian freedom fighters incarcerated here included Veer Savarkar, Batukeshwar Dutt, Yogendra Shukla, and many participants in the Ghadar conspiracy and other anti-colonial movements.
The Andamans, including Port Blair, were occupied by the Imperial Japanese forces from March 1942 to October 1945. On 30 December 1943, Subhas Chandra Bose visited Port Blair and hoisted the flag of the Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind), symbolically claiming the islands as the first Indian territory under Azad Hind administration. He renamed the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Shaheed and Swaraj respectively.
After Indian independence in 1947, Port Blair became the headquarters of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which were constituted as a centrally administered territory and later a Union Territory. The city was severely affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004, which damaged coastal infrastructure across the archipelago, although Port Blair fared better than several outer islands.
In September 2024, the Government of India announced the renaming of Port Blair to Sri Vijaya Puram, citing a connection to the historical Sri Vijaya empire and a move away from colonial-era place names. Earlier, in 2018, three nearby islands had been renamed: Ross Island as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Dweep, Neil Island as Shaheed Dweep, and Havelock Island as Swaraj Dweep.
Port Blair is the seat of the Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and houses the Union Territory's Secretariat, the office of the Chief Secretary, and the Port Blair bench of the Calcutta High Court. The city falls within South Andaman district and is governed at the local level by the Port Blair Municipal Council. The Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), India's only tri-service theatre command, is headquartered at Port Blair and operates jointly under the Indian Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard.
The economy is driven by public administration, defence establishments, fisheries, timber, and tourism. Veer Savarkar International Airport connects Port Blair to Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Visakhapatnam. The Directorate of Shipping Services operates passenger ships from Port Blair to Chennai, Kolkata, and Visakhapatnam, while inter-island ferries link the capital to Havelock, Neil, Diglipur, and the Nicobar group. The port at Haddo handles cargo for the islands.
The population of Port Blair is highly cosmopolitan, comprising descendants of convicts and freedom fighters, post-1947 settlers from East Bengal, repatriates from Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and ex-servicemen settled under government schemes. Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Nicobarese are spoken. The indigenous communities of the islands — including the Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa, Sentinelese, Nicobarese, and Shompen — are protected under tribal reserve regulations and are not concentrated in the city itself.
Port Blair holds importance disproportionate to its size: as the only city of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, as a memorial site of India's freedom struggle, and as a strategic node for India's maritime presence in the eastern Indian Ocean and the approaches to the Strait of Malacca.